Highest security alert for ASEAN leaders assured

Government security forces will be placed on the highest security alert to prevent any untoward incident during a regional summit in the country next month.

Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr. said the government aims to ensure the safe and orderly Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and related meetings that will be attended by 21 world leaders on November 13 to 15.

Paynor, former protocol chief in Malacañang, currently serves as director general for operations of the ASEAN 2017 National Organizing Committee.

“It will be highest alert. Red alert, is as far as I know, is the highest ano. But even with just red alert, it will be even higher than that,” he said during a Palace news conference.

“All of the security elements within the areas of where the leaders will be, will be on full security alert. The whole country will also be on alert because we would not want anything happening anywhere in the Philippines during those days,” he added.

As chairman of ASEAN, the Philippines will host the annual meeting of ASEAN leaders and their dialogue partners from November 13 to 15. These dates have been declared as special holidays mainly for security purposes.

Among the leaders coming to Manila are US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and UN Secretary General António Guterres.

Paynor assured that the government is ready to host the series of high-level meetings of the world leaders, citing preparations started a year and a half ago to ensure the meetings will go “unhampered and hassle-free.”

Part of the security preparations are the three-day holiday proclamation in Metro Manila, Bulacan and Pampanga, the arrival of the world leaders via the Clark airport, and the stop-and-go traffic scheme to clear certain roads for their motorcades.

He said the decision to use the Clark airport was in line with the President’s order to avoid commercial flight interruptions at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

“We are more or less prepared and we are ready to accept and meet up all of the various heads of government, heads of state, heads of government who are coming here,” he said.

He said they would still hold dry runs until November 11 on the movement of the convoys and movement of the leaders within the venue meetings.

So far, Paynor said four or five world leaders have requested for bilateral meetings with the President on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit.

He said the President’s partner, Honeylet Avanceña, will be the official hostess for the ASEAN summit. A program for the leaders’ spouses has also been arranged on November 13.